Statement of the Problem
A ‘hyperlink’ is defined as a mechanism implemented via a computer system which allows a viewer to link (or jump) from a source location in a document to a destination location in the same or different document. The hyperlink is the combination of a display element or an indication (generally visual) that a hyperlink is available for a particular hyperlink source, and a computer program (typically a web browser) which finds and displays the hyperlink destination. A hyperlink thus provides a computer-assisted way for a human user to efficiently move between various locations containing information which is somehow related.
A significant problem with generating information for computer-based hyperlink systems is that an author (system developer) must review the material to be hyperlinked, identify topics to which to hyperlink, and must also manually set up the hyperlinks. This is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Some of the disadvantages of manually creating arbitrarily indexed hyperlinked documentation for include:
Since commands can be indexed in arbitrary groups (not necessarily alphabetically), hand editing is required. This is not desirable, since manual entry of the necessary hyperlinking tags frequently results in mistyped links, rendering the documentation useless.
Since care must be taken to ensure that hand-generated links are accurate, the process of creating documentation manually is very slow and tedious. Therefore, documentation may be out-of-date and no longer relevant.
Both of the above problems are exacerbated when there are hundreds of commands to hyperlink to each other, and also when the documentation is frequently updated. In addition, after the documentation is updated, it must be updated on the web server. This may be a problem if the person maintaining the documentation is not a web site administrator, and thus must wait until an administrator is available to make the necessary updates.
Furthermore, every time a change is made to a document of interest, the author must manually update links to the changed documentation.
What is needed is a system that automatically generates hyperlinks from indexed text in one document to one or more related topics in another document. There is also a need for a system that automatically updates the hyperlinks generated thereby to Internet-accessible web pages.
Solution to the Problem
The present system solves the above problems and achieves an advance on the field by providing a system that indexes text according to an arbitrary (i.e., not necessarily alphabetical) set of indices and automatically generates hyperlinks from each index to a related topic in a document. By automating the document linking and updating process, the chances of introducing errors into the hyperlinking process are greatly reduced, if not eliminated. Documentation is kept up-to-date and relevant. Furthermore, the documentation is instantly available over the Internet, since the present invention automatically copies all of the necessary files to the appropriate web server. In addition, it is no longer necessary to wait for the web server administrator to make updates to new or modified documentation.
A text file containing the text of the documentation of interest is used as input to a hyperlink processing program that generates a file containing links to all of the topics of interest in the documentation. In one embodiment of the present system, the hyperlink processing program performs the steps set forth below.
A category file is created that indicates an association between each of the topics and corresponding subjects included in each topic;                a data structure is generated that associates each topic with corresponding subject names in accordance with the association defined in the category file;        a plurality of subject name files is generated, each including HTML (hypertext markup language) text corresponding to an associated subject;        a global index file comprising said hyperlinks to each of the subject name files is generated;        a plurality of index files is generated, each including hyperlinks between each of the topics and corresponding subject name files in accordance with the data structure;        a list of category names corresponding to a primary set of indices is displayed in a first window, using hyperlinks in the index files;        a secondary set of said indices comprising a list of subject names is displayed in a second window, in response to a user selecting one of the category names; and        in response to a user clicking on one of the subject names in the second window, the text in the subject name file corresponding to the subject name selected by the user is displayed in a third window, using hyperlinks in the global index file.        
The present system also automatically updates the associated hyperlinks to other information located on the Internet-accessible web pages.